With all the new blockchain platforms springing up all over the place, and with the continued development of older blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, one thing has become obvious: blockchains need to be re-thought. Many current blockchain networks suffer from outdated designs and inefficient construction that lead to problems with security, transaction speeds, and scalability. If these problems can't be solved, it'll be harder to get more individuals and companies to adopt blockchain technology.

That's why RChain was formed. RChain is here to revamp and improve upon current blockchain architecture to make it better than ever, and more appealing for broader adoption.

The RChain Design

There are several features which make RChain a compelling new platform to keep an eye on.

The first is its transaction speed. The way it's set up, it's supposed to launch with the ability to handle 40,000 transactions a second, with an eventual goal of 100,000. That's huge, especially when you consider most of the competition can't handle nearly that many.

The second are the developer tools that will allow developers to integrate their existing dApps to the RChain platform, regardless of coding language.

There's also the RChain Cooperative, a group that's made up out of not just the users of RChain, but also its investors and its developers. It's a way for everyone to get access to the RChain blockchain and help develop the platform.

Lastly, there's the issue of security. RChain is dedicated to providing a way for developers to make dApps that are going to be quick, scalable, and safe from intruders and hackers.

The Cooperative

RChain has really put in the effort to make theirs a community where people can feel like they can be directly involved. Those who wish to join the co-op need to pay a $20 lifetime membership fee, which gives them access to the RChain Discord channels, as well as the ability to vote in board elections and on proposals for budgets and development.

Unlike some other platforms, where the amount of tokens you possess determines the amount of influence you have, RChain allows only one vote per member regardless of tokens, keeping things simple and democratic.

How RChain Works

The primary purpose of RChain is to create a blockchain network that's scalable for large-scale adoption. It uses a system inspired by mobile process calculi that uses mathematical principles to achieve this goal.

The speed of the platform is achieved because of the Rho Virtual Machine Environment. It can run several Rho Virtual Machines at a time, so that one machine doesn't need to process everything by itself.

The platform also allows for multiple blockchains to run simultaneously, allowing for quicker transaction speeds due to less network bottlenecking.

RChain also makes use of smart contracts written in Rholang, the platform's secure and scalable native programming language.

The RChain Sale

Like many blockchain platforms, RChain had a private token sale. The sale for this preliminary token, called RHOC, began in August 2019 and went for two straight weeks until they hit their goal of $15 million in funding. The RHOC tokens will be converted to REV tokens when the network is fully launched.

Trading, Buying, and Storing RHOC

During the private sale, RHOC sold for around $0.20 – not a bad price, considering how much the value has gone up since then, hitting $2.00 around the beginning of January and hovering within a dollar of that ever since.

Right now, there aren't many places to buy RHOC. In fact, there are only four: Kucoin, ChaoEX, Forkdelta, and the Token Store. None of them support fiat exchanges, however – you'll have to trade for Bitcoin or Ethereum.

At the moment the RHOC token is ERC-20-compliant, meaning you can store it in any wallet that supports the ERC-20 protocol. That includes the ever-popular MyEtherWallet. If you prefer a hardware wallet, you can store it in a Ledger Nano S or Trezor, although those will set you back upwards of $100.

The Future of RChain

The RChain platform isn't coming out any time soon. Right now, the plan is for their first incarnation of the network (called “Mercury”) to launch at the end of 2019. Those who possess RHOC will be able to use the platform at that time.

RChain also recently had its first governance forum. It was a chance for the RChain community to get together and discuss the project's development.

The RChain Team

The team behind RChain has plenty of experience in software and blockchain development, more than enough to please those with high standards.

The founder of RChain is Greg Meredith, who also serves as the President of the RChain Cooperative. With more than 30 years of experience in technology, he's no stranger to large-scale projects. Among other examples of his previous work, he was responsible for working on developing projects for AT&T and Microsoft.

Ed Eykholt is the RChain CEO, as well as co-founder of the project. Like Meredith he used to work with Microsoft, and he also worked on projects for French electric power company Alstom.

Other team members include: Kenny Rowe, a developer and consultant with an extensive background in blockchain technology; Evan Jensen, an expert in law and the RChain company's General Counsel; and Lisa Rice, the Chief Financial Officer for RChain, with a background not only in finance, but accounting and treasurer's duties.

RChain vs Ethereum

In some ways, these platforms are very similar. Both are blockchain platforms that have their own currencies and make use of dApps and smart contracts. Both also have development in mind, creating environments intended to promote creation of new applications by users and developers. RChain, however, is mainly focused on scalability and security. Ethereum has some problems with scalability that they are trying to solve by implementing sharding and the new Plasma system, but those haven't been released yet. RChain is still in development, and will be until the end of 2019, while Ethereum is fully-functional.

RChain vs EOS

These platforms both have a scope that includes decentralized app development and decentralization. Both also promote scalability for supporting larger-scale adoption. RChain is fully-funded since its private token sale, while EOS's token sale is ongoing, and has been for a year now (as of the writing of this article). Neither system is up and running yet, so there's no test that's been done of whether either of them fully “works.” Both tokens are ERC-20 compatible. EOS plans to have an upper limit of 1 million transactions a second, whereas RChain is only aiming for 100,000.

RChain vs Cardano

Both of these projects are blockchain-based, and both have their own “currencies” of sorts, but beyond that (plus the capability of handling smart contracts) there's little else that's the same. RChain is a blockchain platform for creating dApps and scaling operations of the blockchain to handle more transactions per second, while Cardano (even though it supports dApp development) seems more focused on their Wallet and currency (the Ada). Cardano is closer to Ethereum than RChain, which places less of an emphasis on trading and exchanging their tokens. RChain isn't out yet, while Cardano has been released.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the RChain ICO?No announcement has been made yet.

When was the RChain token sale?
August of 2019.

What is RChain “RHOC”?
RHOC is the pre-launch token that holders will have converted into the usable “REV” tokens upon launch.

What's the price of RChain?
It's hovering around $2.00, of late.

Is RChain a coin?
They have a token, the RHOC/REV, that will give holders certain voting privileges and be useful for paying for fees.

Is RChain on Reddit?Yes.

What's the RChain roadmap?
In 2019, the focus is on testing the alpha, and then towards the end of the year they plan on releasing the first version of the RChain blockchain network.

What was the RChain ICO price?
It was $0.20.

Do you know where to buy RChain?
You can get it at Kucoin, the Token Store, EtherDelta and ChaoEX.

What is RChain?
It's a decentralized blockchain network that allows the creation of dApps with increased transaction times, scalability, and security.

Is RChain an exchange?No.

Can I buy RChain?
Of course! You're limited to the four places that sell it, of course.

What's the price prediction for RChain?It could go up once they release the alpha, or if they announce a partnership.

Can I get RChain on EtherDelta?Yes.

Where can I read a review of the RChain ICO?Probably on Medium, Reddit, or on a crypto blog.

Conclusion

In the midst of all the new blockchain platforms out there, many of them seem to be focusing more on privacy and liquidity as their primary promises to users. While those are important, other things are important too: things like security, things like transaction speeds, things like scalability. If more and more people are going to be using blockchains, someone's going to need to come up with a design for them that allows massive amounts of users, otherwise the chains will get bogged down in transactions and frustrate new users.

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